FlyerRights: Airport security dismal

WASHINGTON, 20 January 2017: FlyerRights, a group that lobbies for airline passenger rights and safety, kicked off the New Year calling for stronger measures to make US airports safer.

While the group targets US airports, the message could equally apply to airports worldwide that are face a growing risk of terror attacks.

The group said US passengers should be able to count on TSA as well as local and state law enforcement authorities to protect them.

They cited the recent attacks on Brussels, Istanbul and now the Fort Lauderdale airport massacres suggesting the message was clear; air transportation continues to be a prime target for terrorism and mass murder.

“Airports are now clearly the No 1 soft target, and are naked and totally unprotected,” the group said in a recent statement that calls for corrective measures.

FlyersRights.org had called for TSA and Congress to provide stronger airport security after a shooting attack at LAX airport in 2013, and again in July 2016 after the Brussels and Istanbul airport massacres, but it noted that “nothing was done”.

Placing anyone who is deemed a security threat by a law enforcement agency on the TSA Watch or No Fly list.

FlyersRights.org previously supported the application of the Whistle Blower statute to TSA and Homeland Security Department, in a successful amicus brief to the US Supreme Court in (MacLean v Dept. of Homeland Security) in 2014, and successfully opposed the reintroduction of knives on planes in 2013 by the TSA.